Update 3/26: Today we’ve released a new Skyrim beta update, version 1.5.26, that introduces the following fixes:

BUG FIXES

Fixed issue with frequency of first person kill cameras

Underwater effects now display properly

Fixed crash when loading certain plugins

Fixed issue where sun would not appear properly after fast travel

Original Post: Released last week as a Beta, Skyrim’s 1.5 update is now available to all users on Steam. Those playing on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 can expect the update soon, as we’re submitting the update to console manufacturers this week.

UPDATE 1.5 (all platforms unless noted)

NEW FEATURES

New cinematic kill cameras for projectile weapons and spells

New kill moves and animations for melee weapons

Shadows on grass available (PC)

Smithing skill increases now factor in the created item’s value

Improved visual transition when going underwater

Improved distance LOD transition for snowy landscapes

BUG FIXES

General crash fixes and memory optimizations

Fixed issue with Deflect Arrows perk not calculating properly

In “A Cornered Rat,” the death of certain NPCs no longer blocks progression

Fixed issue where Farkas would not give Companion’s quests properly

Fixed crash when loading saves that rely on data that is no longer being loaded

Followers sneak properly when player is sneaking

Fixed issue with weapon racks not working properly in Proudspire Manor

Arrows and other projectiles that were stuck in objects in the world now clean up properly

my file size, game crashing at loading screens 1 out of 8 times, the ever increasing items i cant get rid of, followers slow as hell (enemies dont seem to have a problem keeping up), a way to turn off kill cams, shutting up the vendors some, i could go on…. yall know the issues… maybe even fix the alchemy/enchant crap people exploit.

i try the game for a week after every patch and its just same issues….
cant believe you guys got “awards”

After 6 months playing this game, now i understand!!!
I need walk out Helgen!! there are a huge world outside the cave!
Sorry Bethesda! but for a second, during 6 months, the cave is all for me… something secret, maybe.. skooma.

My game crashes A LOT now, didn’t have this problem with the last patch. It’s not just once in a while, I have to save every few minuets in anticipation of the inevitable crash. It’s really very annoying, can you please sort that out? Love it despite the bugs.

Same here. For the most part the bugs I have experienced have been minor; and it only CTD once in a blue moon. But since this patch it CTD every time I travel, wait, go through a door, breath, it’s annoying. I don’t think it’s mods because I don’t have a lot and a lot of other people disabled all theirs and/or restarted from vanilla and have the same issues. Even when rolled backed the TESV.exe it still crashes. WHY IS IT DOING THIS!?!!? It’s not like my computer can’t handle it, it’s a Dell XPS, with a i7 and 2 GB graphics card….

I have found several new bugs. The major bug I, and a few others have reported is where if you load a save (doesn’t have to be modded) it will load until ctd, which takes about as much time as the Manhattan Project. Also, starting a new game results in odd bugs, including, for me, a glitch where the wagon does all manner of things, including flipping, rolling, getting stuck, detaching from the horse, etc. Oddly, if I would toggle the freefly camera, the wagon problems would be solved. Of course, it wouldn’t load anyways, so it didn’t matter. Through time consuming personal debugging, I discovered that if Skyrim.ini had the line “uLockedObjectMapLOD=1” in the [MapMenu] section the loading would fail, and the wagon go flippy-dippy. I assume some other options could cause these problems. Also, ENB series (d3d9.dll) mods cause infiniloading, so assume all wrappers do as well.

Dear gstaff, You have a major glitch in Geirmund’s hall. I bought the game when it came out only to make it to level 41 and become permanently trapped in Geirmund’s hall while on a quest to find a copy of War of the First Counsil because the damn pillar’s will not turn. You can imagine my frustration when I had to start a new game because I hadn’t changed the save settings. I am now on a completely new game, my character is diff, only to find the exact same prob in the same damn place while on the quest Forbidden Legend which I obviously can’t complete. There are also glitches with completing some side quests for the jarl of riften. Hopefully the newest patch will cure a lot of my probs once xbox releases it. In the meantime I would appreciate you addressing the Geirmund’s Hall issue and maybe you can do something about the momentary freezing up that occurs while playing your game. I have been a longtime fan of your game’s but the major glitches, especially in your last few releases have really shaken my confidence in your ability to make a quality game, and I’m definitely not the only one. I would recommend a lot more testing of your games before releasing, just a thought.

I cant wait for the patch I love the kill cams,sorry for spoilers but I’m just wondering if the patch will fix my problem with blood on the ice though…for some reason the quest hasn’t triggered and no one has died in Windhelm yet, also I have a small problem with helping the Jarl of Riften with the skooma thing because I already cleared out that cave where you have to kill the bandits. other then that I love the game and am a big fan of the series thanks for the hardwork Bethesda and i cant wait for the DLCs

i am deceived the ps3 has not the same consideration than the pc so i would want say if someone want buy skyrim
a council buy skyrim on pc as with the moddding the characters models are lot of more worked than on a ps3 version to the head to feet and on pc there is in more the command et the creation tool…
the ps3 version has nothing of this so it is really less good than the version pc the ps3 has only few little updates there is too on pc to corrige bug but nothing other
no modding , no texture reworked…. even if the version ps3 is in the price of 52,90 euros
i wait with impatience the day where the ps3 will be taken in consideration by Bethesda
thanks anyway for the good games
good continuation

thank you for the coucil Claudia
but if i buy all the game of Bethesda on the pc and all people do like there will have a lost of lot of money for them as the version console is more expensive but if it continue and i see Bethesda leave the versions consoles with graphism of a playstation one or quasi megadrive for certain part of the models so i will be not anymore a fan and customers on console or pc and i am sure lot of player will follow me

I would like to see it on Xbox, not just Ps3. The main thing I would want is a version of console. It seems that PC users can fix problems that Xbox/Ps3 users can’t. It is not like their is multi-player or anything silly like that, so there is really no excuse now is there? Come on Bethesda you can at least throw us a bone can’t ya? Xbox and I bet ps3 are capable of having words typed in so, that will not hinder us, and it takes five seconds to look up console commands.

You’ll probably find that PC coding is open to all but because of security issues we are not given the ability to modify games in PS3 and Xbox in order to prevent people hacking the servers and other in game systems relating to non Bethesda games. I the coding for PS3 was common knowledge it would undoubtedly lead to further hacks like the one experienced last year that shut down the PSN.

Given the size of this game and the number of missions and possibilities I’d say that the game is going well but PC’s are easier to code for and therefore always going to be a priority if only for testing before console releases. Sony and Microsoft will undoubtedly want to see any mods functioning before they are released to their own online stores!

There’s a reason why the PS3 and Xbox don’t get these “reworked textures”: they can’t handle those. If Bethesda released it for Xbox/PS3, they’d simply barely run anymore.

Modern PC’s nowadays have at least 4 GB of RAM; an Xbox has barely 512 MB. A PS3 has 2x256MB, which really makes a difference – on my PC loadscreens usually go away after a few seconds, on an Xbox this really takes a lot longer.

It’s not that Bethesda doesn’t show love or care for the PS3, it’s just that those consoles really are at the end of their lifespan – remember that the hardware used in the Xbox/PS3 dates back from the time of Oblivion, over 5 years ago. That’s how games looked back then (and Oblivion was considered to be one of the most beautiful games back then). The insides of the consoles haven’t changed – but the games have. They really have to do wonders to give you games like Skyrim on the PS3/Xbox – and it’s also holding PC gaming back. If you really want to see what game developers can pull off on modern hardware, check The Witcher 2. They have spent months on creating a port for Xbox 360 and it’s graphicly downgraded in every way to even run on the Xbox.

the ps3 and the xbox 360 even they have not the power of a pc can support best graphism than now watch the characters models to the head to foot and say me if it is more close of a graphism of a ps3 or from ps1 or quasi of megadrive

i am really deceived than one of my favorite creator of games give to their fan and customers to buy in lot of more expensive price than on pc two versions consoles with graphism wich are so different of the version pc and with graphism far of the capacity of the ps3 and 360 we have seen

There’s quite the bunch of self-absorbed pricks here. Some of you kiddies would do better to shut your judgment hole until you actually have an idea what it’s like to work towards something and create things for other people to enjoy.

Betathesda will probably not release another patch that fixes broken stuff after the few fixes in 1.5. It’s been 4 months and the game is still in beta form. They will probably no longer make quest fixes or fix the save overwrite bug or the textures never fully loading or the atomic orange french fries in helgen when going back or the glowing wooden beams glitch or the shadows being checkered or flickering or particles flashing or the map going black or other objects like enchanting tables going solid blue or black or weapon drops slowly floating up into space bug or buttons not responding or arrows flopping bug or horrible collision boxes or unkillable hawks bug or hotkeys not working correctly or putting back branches they removed on ps3 or taking off the horrible AA blur filter that is partially responsible for lagging the ps3 version or any of the other HUNDREDS of bugs that are known on uesp or the wiki. This was the last bethesda game I will ever buy. They are some of the worst current gen scripters/coders, and I love the world their games take place. I just will not play unfinished games anymore that never get completed like almost all their games. they lie over and lover like pre-release saying the ps3 version was getting tons of attention and was running as good as the 360 version or it’s a new engine or the snow is dynamic or saying things are new that are old or saying there’s more stuff when there’s less. I mean some “cities” have like 5 buildings and 15 NPCs only. And let’s not forget that they wouldn’t give anyone ps3 copies to test pre-release even after asking for them. They seriously are lazy, unmoral and just plain bad dishonest developers. I have had to hard boot after a freeze at least 65 times now in skyrim and over 100 more in their other games. only had my system freeze maybe 2 or 3 times in other games. I’m done with this shady thieving lying company. They don’t deserve any awards for this broken mess they call a game. Sorry I was just IP banned from their forums for telling one of their staff something sarcastic because he barely ever goes in the ps3 section of the forums but is always in the other sections. I actually didn’t break any tos rules the last two warnings on there. But they hate my opinions so much they finally just decided to ban me without a reason. I had moderators there message me telling me I’m stupid, also one warning suspension I got no message at all and no explanation because it was one of the times I didn’t break any rules. I had over 500 posts deleted at one time and most were just bug reports. Their blog, their forums, and especially their games are jokes to me now. They police all their sites, deing downright mean to their fans, lying, downplaying problems and shifting blame to Sony or the players themselves. They even recommend buying a new ssd hard drive to make the game less laggy which is really unprofessional like almost everything else they do. I finally see them for who they are now. Please don’t pay for their games. They have lost more fans with Skyrim than they realize, but they will probably advertise and lie their way back into newcomers pockets with their next game. All they care about is making money now. There is no heart or desire left in them, only greed. When I play Skyrim I don’t feel the love that went into it because only the team that worked on the landscape really tried to finish what they started. The rest of the game is incomplete, especially the code. Thanks for your support. 0.25/10.00

I do not know why, but when I approach a bridge or tower, sometimes the lowpoly model (only appear to fill the distance view) remains within the detailed model. Someone have this issue in 1.5? I have a clean install, no mods.

Since there’s no way to block Steam updating Skyrim I’ve got 1.5.25.0.5 version… Problem is that it’s different than 1.5.24.xxx that seems to be major current version around the world. This means that things like SKSE (and SkyUI mod!) refuse to work…
No, I don’t subscribed for beta.
Yes, I use Polish version of Skyrim.
The question is: does it mean that localized versions will have different patches from now on?
It’d be the disaster for all non-English mod users…

More on patch 1.5.25.0.5 on Polish version:
There’s a problem with displaying Polish characters. Some uppercase letters shows as lowercase and some characters shows as boxes (something like ‘[]’). Is it addressed in 1.5.26 beta?

Actually there is a way to block auto-updating a specific game in Steam. I mean both: disabling beta and non-beta updates are separate available options. Enter the games library, right-click on Skyrim and there you can choose whether you want to auto-update or not (this refers to non-beta updates).
I use Polish version too and the one thing you may try is wait till 1.5.25 gets auto-updated to 1.5.24 (this is a weird thing but it happens sometimes that 1.5.25 gets rolled back to 1.5.24), once it occurs be sure to disable Skyrim auto-update.

On-topic:
Please fix CTDs near Riften after playing for a longer time (prolly a savegame issue).

Waiting for this update is gruling concidering I have a lvl. 59 battlemage hanging on the back burner hopeing that this 1.5 will address the issue with “Animal Extermination” where animal in question is already exterminated and preventing me from completing given quest. Also one of the companions is walking around with no head. Any way can’t wait for this update x box please hurry!

Since the new patch, whenever I go under water I only see a blue/greenish screen, nothing else. I looked it up if there’s a way to fix it by yourself but I just found some people with the same problem :/ so instead of actually having ‘Improved visual transition when going underwater’ I see nothing now, wich really sucks >:c

“A Cornered Rat” never started for me, probably because I killed an NPC. When I get the patch for xbox 360 will the quest start automatically, will I have to talk to an NPC to get the quest, or will I have to start a new game? How will it work otherwise?

Here is my bug:
Steam keeps updating my game to 1.5.25.0.5, sometimes it “updates back” to 1.5.24.0.5. The thing is that 1.5.25.0.5 has problems considering Polish language letters (some are missing, some are displayed only in lower-case, and some are displayed as a square sign). Don’t know if 1.5.24 is troublemaking cuz Steam keeps updating to 1.5.25.
I’m not participating in beta I guess, at least I never checked any option to download beta-updates anyway.
The second thing is that game crashes (usual CTD) quite usually when it reaches like 1 814 736 kBytes in memory. If I set manually iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes to 2Gb+ the game instead of CTDing does a permanent freeze once it reaches some point of memory length.

You fix all of that, but not the glitched companion quest line. I have been trying to do the Purity of Revenge quest for months, but nothing. Also the Blood on the Ice quest. The last patch was said to fix some issues with that, but I still can’t do it. It won’t activate when I go to the graveyard in Windhelm, and I did everything you need to do to activate it (enter city 4 times, do it at 2:00 am.) Please Bethesda, those are the only quests I can’t do, and I wish you would fix those as well. But thanks for the awesome new cinematic kill cams. I will be doing those all the time.

Well, I recommend to NOT get the 1.5 patch, unless you want to mess up your camera, or if you want to mess up ENB, if you use that.
They “Improved visual transition when going underwater”, but it seems it somehow messed up how the camera works.
I got the problem that when you look straight up or down when walking on land, makes it seem that your character is submerged in water, in a very choppy way. Like, in-out-in-out.
I read some in the steam forums, and it seemed some other people had the same bug, but while under water, just that they fell down to the bottom like they were on land, then began to swim again in the same choppy manner. I have yet to try going under water and see what happens.

1. I can not start “house of horrors” i have tried speaking to bartender, walk across the house several times, and have been wondering around Markath looking for the Vigalent.

2. Aldis, the man i need to speak to in solitude for the girl is stuck on the ground (or at least that’s where the arrow shows him)

3. I Must find a copy of “war of the first council” i have the book but it would not let me give it to him. marker shows it’s in chest but it is not, i have it but it wont let me drop or put back in chest.
please help i would appreciate it
Thanks 🙂

Gotta tell you, no fix for the Stormcloaks mission (where you can’t “report in” after completing A False Front) is really hurtful. I can’t continue that, and I am 180 hours in. 180 hours. It’s a great game, but this is sort of hard to swallow.

if been stuck on the companions quest line forever, Striking the Heart given by Aela, i have to kill the silver hand leader. i go to valtheim towers (also checked other known places)and the objective marker just leads to thin air over the river before the waterfall. I have searched and searched for other quest lines but i think i did them all. i want to finish all the main stuff but im stuck! fix it please!

I was hoping that this minor annoyance could be patched, Everytime I use a dual wielded weapon for instance two: daggers, hammers, war axes, swords, etc. you see the one dagger appear from your side and the second one appears in your hand out of nowhere… I was hopeing that could be fixed with the addition of another sword/axe/dagger being shown on the opposite side for the other hand and a new animation for unsheathing your dual wielded weapons.

Also I was hopeing that you could also patch in a feature to block with dual wielded weapons… It is something that should have been initiatially in the game from the start. Look at any other game or movie and you can see it Is easily possible to block while dual wielding. For instance to block when using two weapons should be done by holding down the sprint button and a trigger while dual wielding. Or a different way, as long as I can defend as well it work out nice.

Oh also possibly add a new feature to the archery skill list, double arrow quiver. Activated by equipping two different kinds of arrows at once. One to poison (iron, steel, Orc, etc….) and whatever else for the other. And as a free perk for smithing “marksman” which could allow you to craft arrows from pieces of wood, and a ingot of some kind (iron, steel, etc…) each time you make the arrow it gives you 3-5 arrows per log and ingot… Which would make use of the log chopping feature, and better use of smithing for archers.

Possibly allow mages to makes staffs aswell (of course they would need to enchant it them selves though.

Would love to see arrow and staff forging if for nothing else than getting a few more daedric arrows (which are like gold dust) even 5 ebony ingots and 1 daedra heart for 10 arrows would be cool.
The dual wielding block I disagree with though, the idea is that by having the option of extra attacking force you have to sacrifice some defence otherwise shields would be a waste of time, it’s all down to whether you are gung ho or whether you prefer to attack cautiously, but granted a small code to show 2 weapon sheaths and draws would be cool.

There is a mod for crafting arrows using different ingots and wood…it is 4 ingots/4 firewood for 100 arrows. You can’t make dragonbone arrows, though, which is the only thing I was bummed out about with this mod. It also allows you to make decorations for your home, circlets, and some other misc. armor/weapons. I think it is called “Mastercraft”

I’ve had a problem in markarth, after I’ve helped the forsworn escape cidner mine, whenever I do that mission where you go into that museum with all the dwarven artifacts, the guards in there will try and arrest me.. but they start accusing me of conspiring with the forsworn even though they cleared that problem once I helped them escape, then the guards all around markarth do the same, if I try to let them arrest me, I don’t get sent to prison again, it’s weird, any way to fix this??

I play the game on my ps3 and i can’t start the Damaned Spirits quest. Neither Mercer, Brynwolf or Maven will talk to me to give the quest option.
Please help.
By the way, BIG THANKS for making one of the best games ever.

This game sucks and is a rip off. I have it for Xbox. I am locked out of three quests. The main mage quest, a side mage quest, and the whole war. It seems that Bethesda likes to rip people off. I have called them and emailed them. I want my money back. I will never buy a Bethesda game again. And I tell everyone how much this game sucks too. And I will continue to do so at PAX.

Is there any chance of Jarl Laila Law-Giver being fixed? 1.4 update on 360 led her to flying from her throne, then flying off outside. My girlfriend can’t complete the Skooma quest now because the Jarl of Riften is MIA.

for me the blood on the ice quest wouldnt start and i cant buy a house in windhelm even though i have helped enough people and done enough quests i have the option to buy it but he keeps saying there is some unpleasantness and i had the option to become thane once but now it doesnt appear just wondering if you had done anything for that or if it was just my game and im on ps3 by the way if it makes any difference